Alaska's Great Race - Lance Mackey at YourDiscovery.com

Lance Mackey

NAME: LANCE MACKEY

AGE: 38

HOMETOWN: Fairbanks, Alaska

WIFE: Tonya

CHILDREN: Amanda, 19, Brittney, 17, Alanah, 16, and Cain, 15.

OCCUPATION: Owns and operates the "Comeback Kennel"

In the face of naysayers who don’t believe he can win, Lance Mackey is coolly confident. He also plans to tackle the Iditarod only one week after winning the Yukon Quest with the same dog team. The 2007 Iditarod champion and three-time Yukon Quest champion (and current record holder) says he began mushing "at birth."

Mackey has raced dogs in regional events throughout Alaska. He ran in four Junior Iditarod races before competing for the first time in the Iditarod in 2001. In 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, he won the Yukon Quest. In March 2007, he became the third Mackey to become an Iditarod champion. Mackey says that this has been a lifelong dream of his as far back as he can remember. He is also the only musher to ever win both 1,000-mile races back to back and he did it twice.

After the 2001 Iditarod, Mackey was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent extensive surgery as well as radiation treatment. He started the 2002 Iditarod but had to scratch in the Ophir checkpoint and took 2003 off to regroup. He is now considered cancer free and has a solid, fairly young team with another year of experience.